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tv   PBS News Hour  PBS  April 25, 2014 6:00pm-7:01pm PDT

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captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: scattered reports of violence in ukraine today underscored the simmering tensions roiling the country while the international war of words over the crisis continued to escalate. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. also ahead this friday, armed with face recognition, iris scanners, and a powerful array of computers, police across the country are taking a more high-tech and possibly privacy- eroding approach to fighting crime.
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they're more likely to tell us their real names. >> woodruff: then, mark shields and david ks analyze the week's news. plus... arguably the world's most famous play by literature's most lauded bard, and one theater company's ambitious plan to bring shakespeare's tale of a tormented prince to every country on the globe. >> we'll have to put "hamlet" into that country, into the air of that country, into the ears of the people of that country and to see what happens. >> woodruff: those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> charles schwab, proud supporter of the "pbs newshour." >> and by bnsf railway.
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>> and with the ongoing suppo of these institutions and foundations. and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: bombs tore through a campaign rally in iraq today, killing at least 31 people and wounding dozens more. the event at a baghdad stadium was intended to introduce candidates from a militant shiite group ahead of next week's parliamentary elections. a camera captured the exact moment one of the bombs went off at the complex. there was also intense gunfire from iraqi security forces after
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the explosion. reporter jane arraf is in baghdad. she was covering the rally for the newshour and spoke to us a short time ago. a warning-- some of the im shown during this interview may be disturbing. jane, welcome. how close were you, and tell us what happened. >> reporter: well, we were at a rally, quite an important one for new political party, the league of the righteous, and it's a very hard-line iranian-backed party that actually has a militia attached. as the main speakers -- and they're doing a reenactment of the martyrdom of hussein -- and there's a huge explosion where everyone hit the ground or started scattering. there was absolute panic because when car bombs go off in baghdad, security forces immediately respond by shooting randomly, in many cases. and there was the sound of the
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explosion, a huge thud, gunfire all over the place, and then there was another car bomb and a suicide bomb. so altogether, three of them. it was absolute panic, as you might expect, in between the car bombs, explosions, the security forces, the chaos. it was a truly terrible scene. >.>> woodruff: jane there's a a report about the violence. what does this say about the security situation right now? >> i think that the united states is understandably worried. intelligence was one of the big areas that iraq suffered from after the withdrawal of u.s. troops. but more than that, we've at least got now, what we're seeing in the runup to the elections is groups polarized, a lot of them
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with the militia's attack, more divided than ever. the u.s. is focusing on the fighting going on the anbar and fallujah only 30 miles from the center of baghdad. that means that iraqi government and their american allies fear that could actually spread to baghdad. that would threaten not just baghdad, not just the iraqi government, but a huge embassy and thousands of american contractors. so theyare understandably quite worried about what happens in anbar and in other parts of the country where violence seems to be spreading. >> reporter: jane, we are so glad you are safe. thank you for that report. >> thank you so much, judy. >> woodruff: in south sudan, there's word that gunmen fired on a convoy of united nations barges on the nile river yesterday. four people were wounded, including u.n. peacekeepers. the convoy was delivering food and fuel to the city of malakal when attackers opened fire and
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launched rocket-propelled grenades. both the military and rebel groups denied responsibility. the attack came days after hundreds of civilians were slaughtered in the city of bentiu. president obama issued a new warning to north korea today not to carry out a fourth nuclear test. he spoke during a visit to south korea amid reports of new activity at the north's nuclear site. e united states and south korea stand shoulder to shoulder in the face of the provocations and in our refusal to accept a nuclear north korea. threats will get north korea nothing other than greater isolation. >> woodruff: south korean president park said if the north does carry out another test, further international talks on its nuclear program would be pointless. the two presidents also joined in silent prayer for victims of the south korean ferry disaster. the number of confirmed deaths
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rose today to 183. meanwhile, t south korean government admitted some of the bodies were misidentified and even given to the wrong families. an official task force said, from now on, it will transfer remains only after there is a dna or fingerprint match. the number of suicides in the u.s. military fell by more than 15% last year. the four armed services report there were 289 suicides among active duty troops in 2013. that's down from the 343 reported one year earlier. the totals dropped in all four services, but rose in military branches not considered active duty-- the army national guard and reserves-- to 152. a lawyer for congressman michael grimm said late today the new york republican expects to face federal criminal charges. he's been under investigation in a campaign finance case.
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he made headlines in january when he threatened to throw a tv reporter off a balcony at the u.s. capital. the tensions in ukraine and disappointing earnings weighed down wall street today. the dow jones industrial average lost 140 points to close at 16,361. the nasdaq fell more than 72 points to close at 4,075. and the s&p 500 slid 15 to finish at 1,863. for the week, all three indexes lost a fraction of 1%. still to come on the newshour: simmering tensions and scattered reports of violence in ukraine; two modern popes poised to be made saints; local police turn to high-tech tools to fight crime; mark shields and david brooks on the week's news; plus, taking shakespeare's "hamlet" to every country on the globe.
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>> woodruff: now to ukraine, russian aircraft entered yiewcialgian airspace on several occasion in the last 24 hours and escalating verbal assaults between kiev and moscow. thick smoke marked the day's major flashpoint, slaviansk, where pro-russian separatists hold sway. a ukrainian military helicopter exploded as it sat at an airfield, hit by bullets or rocket fire. later, gunmen in slaviansk seized a bus carrying international mediators. the separatist leader there claimed a spy for the kiev government was on board. >> ( translated ): i've heard reports that there was somebody
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there from the military headquarters. it is already doesn't look good. people who come here as observers from the european union bring a real spy with them. it doesn't lok good at all. this is an example of the policy of double standards. >> woodruff: ukraine's foreign ministry confirmed it lost contact with observers from the organization for security and cooperation in europe, the o.s.c.e. at the same time, kiev said government forces were beginning a full blockade of slaviansk. a day earlier, troops killed several gunmen at a checkpoint there. the ukrainian military moves prompted a new blast today from russia's foreign minister, sergei lavrov in moscow. >> ( translated ): some 160 tanks and some 250 armored personnel carriers and other heavy military hardware, are waging a war with their own people. this is a bloody crime, and those who pushed the army to do that will pay, i am sure, and >> woodruff: russian forces were on the move, as well, in maneuvers. ukrainian officials claimed they had come within 1,100 yards of the border. and acting prime minister arseny yatsenyuk sounded an alarm. >> ( translated ): military aggression by russia on ukraine's territory will lead to
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military conflict in europe. the world has not yet forgotten world war ii, but russia already wants to start world war iii. >> woodruff: last night, secretary of state john kerry had accused moscow of fomenting trouble in ukraine, in direct violation of last week's agreement in geneva. >> if russia continues in this direction, it will not just be grave mistake, it will be an expensive mistake >> woodruff: but russia's lavrov rejected the criticism today. he insisted the separatists in eastern ukraine will lay down their arms, under the geneva accord, only when nationalist protesters in kiev disband their camps. from south korea today, president obama said again the u.s. and european nations are ready to ratchet up the economic pressure on russia. >> what's also important is laying the groundwork so that, if and when we see even greater escalation, perhaps even
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military incursion by russia into ukraine, we're prepared for the sort of sectorial sanctions that would have even larger consequences. >> woodruff: there was fresh evidence that russia was already feeling the effects of the initial round of sanctions. the ratings agency standard and poor's downgraded russia's credit rating for the first time in five years to just one notch above junk status. the s&p warned more downgrades could follow if tighter sanctions were imposed and capital flight from the country was not stemmed. r a closer look at how the russian economy has been affected since the ukraine crisis began, i'm joined by cliff kupchan. he's the head of the eurasia group's russia and eurasia team. cliff kupchan, welcome back to the "newshour". let's talk about the standard & poor's downgrading of the russian credit status. what does that really mean for russia? >> means the russian economy is
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not doing well. the report made clear capital flight from russia is in full stampede. the s&p told us on average for the previous five years, $51 billion a year roughly has left russia. in the first quarter alone of 2014 between $50 billion and $60 billion has left. growth is anemic. russia is running deficits. they're not doing much to improve the economy. >> reporter: who is that affecting inside russia? some of the leadership? ordinary people? >> right now, i think it's a muddling down for the ordinary person. real disposable income which measurers how much a person has to spend was growing consistently at high rates till last year where it wast 1.9%. so the first victim of all of this is going to be the ordinary russian, not the fat cat with money all over the world. >> woodruff: and now, in fact, minutes before we went on the air, the wires are reporting that the u.s. and the e.u. are
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both set to announce new sanctions against russia. monday, the u.s., i'm reading, sanctions that would be focused on those responsible -- or on putin cronies and the e.u. focusing on those "responsible for eastern ukraine unrest." what does that say to you? >> it tells me things will get worse for mr. putin. i think right now he is operating on what i'd call a ukraine bender. it's all about politics. he wants ukraine back. sooner or later he's going to realize he may have a choice between getting ukraine and having an economy because these sanctions hurt. we have been able to practice sanctions on iran. we know how to do them. we know hto hit banks and scare financial sectors and putin may well find out the hard way. >> woodruff: but are these type sanctions what we just described -- >> no. >> woodruff: those are not sanctions to have the iran
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level. >> those are not of the iran level. they are against individuals and individual companies, but we've learned that sanctioning a bank -- we've already sanctioned the 17th lackest bank in russia on march 20. that spooked the russian financial section. president obama said we are preparing for level 3 iran-like sanctions. so this is all in the workst what we may see may be the epitaph of this gruesome episode may be that mr. putin created a costly economic overreach. we'll see. >> woodruff: so far, he has shown no sign of backing down. >> so far he has shown no sign of backing down. so far, i think he simply wants ukraine back. i don't think he's getting informed. somebody's got to tell him -- > >> woodruff: what do you mean you don't think he's been informed? >> i don't think putin's information is all that good. i think one of the many tragedies of the crisis is he surrounds himself by hard-liner kgb guys and the realists have
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been eclipsed. i think the foreignfinancial minister may say i want ukraine, too, but we'll lose the economy. >> reporter: you don't think he's just choosing to ignore it or you think the information isn't getting to him? >> look, i don't know. i've met mr. putin a lot of times. she a very emotional guy. i think he knows what he wants. he's eher hearing it or not hearing it in one ear and out of the other or maybe everybody's too scared to go to the godfather and say this is not such a good idea. i don't knowhich way but sooner or later he'll get the message. >> woodruff: meanwhile the reports about russian aircraft over ukrainian airspace in the last 24 hours, russian troops close to the border, you know, are we looking at a situation that could become a hot war? >> this is scary stuff. right now, i would be surprised ifthere were a hot war.
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mr. putin still has a hot card which is invade from below, to start to get activist russians in eastern ukraine to take cities and grab territory. that way he could take ukraine without wielding any tanks. if that doesn't work, i think he immediately wield the tanks. i'd be surprised if we saw anything this weekend or next as far as invasion, but this perception is a real problem and he has limited patience, i've seen it, and we could be in for a very, very rough ride here. >> woodruff: cliff kupchan, we thank you. >> good to see you. >> woodruff: appreciate it. thanks. >> woodruff: catholics from around the world have converged on rome this week to attend a ceremony unprecedented in the modern church. jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: crowds flooded the vatican today ahead of sunday's historic canonization of popes
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john paul ii and john xxiii. more than a million people are expected to pack st. peter's square as two of the 20th century's most beloved pontiffs are declared saints. >> ( translated ): they were both great popes. they changed what was the course of the church throughout centuries. so i think that they will do a lot as saints, too. >> brown: john paul ii will achieve that status faster than anyone in modern times. the polish cardinal was elected pope in 1978, at the height of the cold war, and stood as a firm opponent to communism. he became wildly popular, and was greeting the faithful in st. peter's square in may 1981 when he was shot by a turkish guan. he recovered and ultimately reigned for 26 years until his death in 2005. since then, though, there has been continuing criticism over the handling of sexual abuse by priests under his watch. >> the sex abuse affair is a
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dark page of his papa in my opinion, during the last year of his papacy, john paul ii wasn't informed enough about a lot of details. >> brown: but john paul's supporters have defended his actions. >> ( translated ): the pope was very worried, actually. given the purity of his thought, to accept the reality of that, the sex abuse by priests, it was incredible. but he accepted it. naturally, he began immediately to make decisions. >> brown: john xxiii, the so- called "good pope," was elected pontiff in 1958, and is best known for convening the second vatican council. it approved a variety of reforms, including celebrations of mass in languages other than latin. pope john xxiii died of stomach cancer in 1963. he will become a saint, even though the church documented just one miracle instead of the customary two. and joining me now-- patricia mcguire, president of trinity washington university. and from rome, where he's covering this event, john allen is associate editor for the "boston globe."
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john, welcome back. starting with you. two very different popes known for two very different things. clearly, some zig in putting them -- significance in putting them together in this canonization, right? >> absolutely. one thing you dare never forget about pope francis is beneath the lummable exterior which is real is the mind of an extraordinarily crafty jesuit politician. this is a pope that is very sensitive to the politics he does and i think he is aware that, in the catholic street, pope john xxiii, the father of the second vatican council which launched the church on a course of reform, is a hero to the catholic left, whereas pope john paul ii who battled communism and what he described as a culture of death behind liberalizing currents on abortion and other issues, he is a hero to the catholic right. i think francis worried if
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either one were canonized individually that that ceremony could have come off as a victory lap for one side or another in the church's internal debates, whereas by putting them together what he achieves is a kind call to unity, an invitation to left and right to get past their differences and come together. >> brown: patricia mcguire, what in our time does it meano be canonized as a saint? how important is it to catholics today? it's a general question, i realize, but how important and what difference does it make? >> i think it's extraordinarily important. we live in an age where we revere icons. you know, "time magazine" comes out with the 100 most influential. well, john xxiii anjohn paul ii have to be the two most influential catholic leaders across the century if not more. >> brown: saying that, there still has been some question or concern about the speed with which john paul ii, even within the church, right? it's an interesting discussion
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there. >> therthere. some said he already showed characteristics of sainthood during his life. the fact he had the charisma and leadership skill and fortitude to do what he did with regard to the liberation of poland in eastern europe, he's a real hero to people who are oppressed and even progressive catholics also like john paul ii. there may be disagreements about some church doctrinal issues, but he was a hero for m&m would agree with his sainthood. >> brown: john allen, how much has this criticism about the child abuse scandals been a factor here? >> clearly the criticism about john paul ii' record on the church's child sexual abuse scandals is undeniably part of the subtext of the event. the vatican has staged a series ofbriefings with some of the luminaires with some of the john
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ii era. we heard from his spokesperson from 22 years, from the cardinal of cr acow poland and the papal biographer, all of them were asked questions about the way john paul ii did or did not respond to the child sexual abuse scandal. so i think in terms of the way the media is covering this story and probably to some extent at the grassroots, it's a piece of the picture, but, on the other hand, it clearly isn't doing much to dampen the enthusiasm of the throngs of pilgrims filling rome even as we speak. although estimates vary, at least 1 million, perhaps 2 million or more expected on sunday. i think what most of them would say is that, well, john paul may have had, that any particular pope may have made mistakes in judgment at the course of their pontificate. attend of the day, they don't harbor much bout john paul is
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worthy the honor of being declared a saint. >>brown: patricia mcguire, i know even within the church there was discussion about whether popes should be sainted. they're already exalted in some sense. >> this is true. looks like a little bit of back scratching, one pope doing that for the other, but, yonder, clarifying, holding up the record of leadership of these two individuals, holding out the idea that john xxiii, what he did in just five years as pope had life changing effects for many catholics, the same with john paul ii. i think there's nothing wrong for pope's honoring each other if for the right reasons. not all popes become saints. so the fact that not every pope is honored but only those who have done extraordinary things there's a lesson in that. >> brown: how are we to understand the miracle question in this day and age? how much rigor goes into the evidence, in this case with john xxiii. one miracle as opposed to norma
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two. what is the meaning of that? >> well, i think in the modern age there is a tendency both to take miracles literally and to say there must be a literal -- because we're a very literal people -- and, on the other hand, to say, well with, we can interpret and look more broadly at this question. i think there is a desire to look more broadly at the man's entire body of work and many people say he was a very holy man, even during his life. he created miracles. that's a healthier modern view than to say there must be a cure. i think the age of looking for specific cures is probably beginning to wane and the idea we should hold up as role models holy, effective, good leaders, good people who try to change the world, that really is what sainthood is about. >> brown: john allen, you started to tell us a little bit about what's going to happen, but how does it feel, already? what's the scene like? what are you expecting this weekend? >> i don't know if you're picking up any of the background noise, but i'm coming to you
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from a location immediately adjacent to st. peter's square. pilgrims are already filling up the place, singing, playing tambourines, banjos. it has, honestly, the feel of kind of a mix between a very somber liturgy and a high school pep rally. what's going to happen is, come tomorrow, saturday, there are going to be 11 churches around rome that will be open all night for the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who will here who want to spend the night praying, preparing for the cannonnization. sunday, the area around st. peter's square will be fill up, packed to bursting. officials in rome have put up 19 jumbotron screens around town to accommodate the overflow crowds. the vatican said they are deploying an army of almost 6,000 priests who will be taking
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but those efforts are not limited to the national security agency. local law enforcement agencies are also gathering and mining unprecedented amounts of data. privacy advocates worry police
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can use this information to track anyone at any time without a warrant. the center for investigative reporting, in partnership with kqed san francisco, has been looking into these new tools for fighting crime. the center's amanda pike has this report. >> reporter: officer rob at the chu lavista police department is testing the technology that could change how police fight crime. he's on a call to verify the identity of a woman arrested for the possession of narcotics. he doesn't need to ask her name or check her i.d. he just takes her picture. his tablet uses facial recognition software to find the suspect's mug shot and criminal history. >> you can lie about your name, your date of birth, your address, but tattoos, birth marks, scars don't lie. reporter: police have access to more data than ever before, raising questions about how that information is used and stored. the tablet is part of a pilot program in san diego couy. >> it's been very helpful and
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some people just have to have the threat of, okay, you don't want to tell us who you are? we'll take a photo and compare. then when people realize the technology we have, they're more likely to tell us their real name. >> reporter: more and more, police are using biometrics, biological metrics from face scans and thumb prints in addition to fingerprints to identify suspects. fingerprinting has been revolutionized. now prints are taken o a mobile scanner and transmitted thousands of miles away to this highly secure f.b.i. complex in west virginia. >> this is next generation identification. >> reporter: these servers are the heart of the f.b.i.'s next generation identification program, or n.g.i. officially launching th summary, the billion-dollar program there add national scans and other metrics to the existing trove of 137 million fingerprints. these computers analyze each
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fingerprint and photo officers send. >> comes to these servers and the servicers do the searches for all 137 million and if they get a hit they pick information out to have the storage to send the criminal history back to the year ying -- querying officer. >> reporter: this runs up to 160,000 searches a day. >> it's big. you can picture it being a football field on top of another football field. >> reporter: the f.b.i. has been collecting fingerprints since the early 1900s. prints were originally checked by hand and could take months to find a match. now computers do the same work in minutes. until recently, the f.b.i. had no easy way to search palm prints and mug shots taken at the time of arrest. that frustrated agents like jeremy wilkes, acting assistant general electric of criminal justice information services. >> we could do very little with the mug shots that we had. if we were collecting palm
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prints, we could do very little with those. we had nothing that really searched those. so for unsolved crimes, you would struggle to search that. so insert n.g.i. >> reporter: any local law enforcement officer connected to n.g.i. can submit an image and get a list of faces with matching features. >> those would be the candidates that would come back. >> reporter: the f.b.i. is adding iris scans to the database because each person's eye contains a unique pattern that's easy to capture. for wilkes, the real power is solving cold cases. >> i can't wait for the success stories to come up. it will be worth its weight in gold of why we developed n.g.i. >> the biggest concern and what people need to know about n.g.i. is anybody could end up being in that database. >> reporter: jennifer lynch is a lawyer with the electronic frontier foundation which is suing the f.b.i. to find out exactly what data the agency is
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collecting. >> the way that n.g.i. is set up, the f.b.i. said, is they're just including mug shots. but that is really just a policy that the f.b.i. has taken. there's no law that says they have to limit the inclusion of images to mug shots. >> reporter: the f.b.i. acknowledges that its facial recognition system sometimes flags the wrong people. 15% of the time, the suspect won't be among the top 50 hits. >> those people whose face images come up suddenly have to prove their innocence rather than the government having to prove their guilt, and that's completely different, again, from how our democracy has been set up. reporter: privacy advocates worry a growing web of traffic monitors, license plate readers and network security cameras will soon allow police to track our every move, all without a warrant. the legal issues over how these new technologies are used and who has access to all of this information are far from
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settled. with so much data being collected, the new tools pose a challenge, where to draw the line between safer streets and spying. at a high-tech nerve center in los angeles, police grapplele with this question every day. >> about a thousand cameras in the city are monitored here mostly for investigative purposes. >> reporter: captain john romero tracks crimes in the city with up to the minute maps reported. >> a small picture of bomb calls, masks are robbery calls, the desks are assault crimes. >> reporter: new technologies allow the department to do predictive policing determining when where crimes are more likely to occur. as part of a new initiative, police also monitor private cameras near the hollywood sign and warn off interlopers through a speaker. >> they are trespassers at this
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point. >> reporter: romero believes while the public may be uneasy about being watched they'll soon see the benefits. >> in early america when we put up streetlights, people thought this was the government trying to spy on us at night. so over time, things shifted and, now, if you tried to take down streetlights in los angeles or boston or anywhere else, people would say, it's public safety. you're hurting our public safety just to save money on lighting. i think that cameras will eventually get there where cameras will not be a problem in the future. >> reporter: but not everyone agrees. these protesters in oakland fear that pole will soon be able to watch anyone anytime with little oversight. for months, they fought a plan to create what they called a city-wide surveillance system, an extensive network of live camera and data feeds.
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in march, they convinced the city council to scale back its plan. for now. but as police experiment with ever more sophisticated technology, the debat will continue on the balance between security and privacy and where to draw that line. >> woodruff: the center for investigative reporting produced that report in partnership with kqed san francisco. tomorrow night, on "newshour weekend," we'll show you the results of one city's secret experint with a new technology called wide area surveillance. and to the analysis of shields and brooks-- that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. weome, gentlemen. so, let's start with the supreme court, david. this week upholding the right of michigan citizens to say you
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can't use race as a criteria in figuring out and deciding what students are admitted to the universities and colleges in that state. >> yes. >> woodruff: what did you make of that decision and does it have a laer effect on the access of minorities to getting a higher education? >> first, what was striking about the decision was the personal nature of the fight between justice sotomayor and juicetieties bayer. whether it's roe v. wade or others, they try to polarize a situation into black and white. when democrats have more advantaging and get moderate solutions. i'm glad they deferred to the democratic majority.
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i think colleges are already moving away from race-based and toward class-based systems and the second thing they're doing in particular is recruiting more. you can recruit. there are lots of places in african-american and latino areas, where there are a lot of smart kids who just don't apply. they don't know, they don't know the process, it doesn't occur to them and they apply at other schools. so a school like the university of michigan -- i know all the schools i'm affiliated with, much more heavily recruited to get the right kind of diversity through a differe means. so i think it's possible to make it for diversity without some crude formula. >> woodruff: how do you read it, mark? >> i think that race-based affirmative action, the clock has run, i think in terms of popular support and obviously in terms of court support. i do believe that the century fund scholar who argued they
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ought to base affirmativetion on class rather than race, ethnicity and national origin is absolutely right and i think this decision really raises his argument which is if you really want to -- make the case of his daughters, educationally advantaged and economically advantaged certainly would never need race as a consideration in their admissio to a school, and that the economic polarization in the country, the increasing gap between the well off and as colleges become more expensive, i think the urgency of providing diversity economically which will, of course, also include both racial and ethnic diversity as well because they're disproportionately advantaged, but to me that's the initiative for those who seek a pluralistic socty. >> woodruff: you don't think this sends a dig nail to minority kids and parents that
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it's just harder and might as well not even apply to some of these schools that are tougher to get into? >> no, it depends on the posture of the schools. i don't think people will make a decision whether princeton or michigan state or southwest illinois on the basis of what the supreme court says. it's whether the school itself goes out and makes the effort. so if the schools are heavily recruiting, then that's a positive thing. now the difficultyis it's one thing to talk about princeton and stanford doing class space because they can afford anything. 95% of the schools in the country cannot afford to do that. so the formula in the future is heavily recruiting in poorer areas and more international kids to pay for them. the international kids pay full. so you can work it out but it's tougher for schools without amazing resources. >> by a two-to-one margin, voters favor giving advantage affirmative action for
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economically deprived. i mean, the child of the single mom working two jobs and by a two-to-one margin they oppose affirmative action based upon race, ethnicity or national origin. so i think, at some point, popular support does become crucial in this argument and i think, to me, that's the case to be made for those who favor a pluralistic and giving disadvantaged children an opportunity at higher education is economic-based. >> woodruff: guns. the governor of georgia this week signed one of the most expansive gun rights laws in the country. among other places, you can now take a gun in georgia into a bar, airport, church, a school under certain circumstances. a church, if the congregation allows it. at the same time, the n.r.a. is meeting, kind of celebrating how well its done in getting a lot of gun rights laws loosened around the country. what does all this say about the
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success of the gun rights organizations and, frankly, the inability of the gun control folks to work their will even in the aftermath of newtown? >> one of the n.r.a. positions, they want a more national system of conceal carry, which is a total violation of any conservative principal of federalism. it's amazing. whenever we talk about federalism in process, it's opportuniic, nobody believes these things in principle. it's not only the n.r.a. they have a base. it's very useful to have a base of support that's spread everywhere and that's discentrallized and passionate because they come at politicians at every district, and my view is if you look at the polling, a majority of americans support tighter gun laws. but if you look at the passion, the majority of passionate people on the n.r.a. side and then they're just dispersed. a lot of people most passionate about controlling guns are in a few metro areas and it's a huge
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advantage to be dispersed around the country where you can hit pressure points. n.r.a. takes full advantage of that. >> the new york u.s. times poll favors a federal background check on all goners, 5-12 in favor. gun owners, 84-14 in favor, 84-13 by republicans. it comes down to intensity and experience. colorado passed, after two thecial tragedies at aurora, claim bine, the theater and the high school, they passed gun background checks and a limit of 15 rounds to a magazine. 15 rounds to a magazine! that's what passed. they had two democratic senators including a former police chief recall first time in the history of office, another senator facing recall resigned so the democratic party could still hold position. so, i mean, this sends a ripple
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effect. david's point about intensity is the key. i mean, last week, we saw the pipeline decision. there is a m a majority in favof building the pipeline but those opposed do so withreater intensity and bigger checkbooks and greater political activism and urgency. >> n.r.a., used to be there would be a lot of groups that compromised and say we'll accept that but not go this far. the n.r.a. position has been no compromise. you want to take away our bazookas? no way. i'm exaggerate ago bit. that model worked. a lot of other groups adopted that model, not giving an inch no matter how reasonable. >> woodrf: following the n.r.a.'s success. >> yes. >> woodruff: i don't know much guns may or may not be an issue but there was a pole, four senate rain the south that
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showed the democrat who was perceived to be in trouble in these races not in as bad shape as people thought. david, is there something -- is this a blip, i guess with the question, or night democrats be in a stronger position when it comes to these senate race this is november? >> i think two things are true. there are a number of republicans recently tell me i wonder if we peaked too soon. the intensity in healthcare stronger a few months ago, now there's movement on the healthcare law, so maybe that. i still think the fundamental structure of this mid-term election is still very positive toward republicans. an approval rating and when people focus, i think it will be a tough year for democrats. but you've got good candidates in some of the states, georgia is one of them. >> woodruff: axe ally not in this pool. >> but there are good democrat candidates. but i guess i would want to see a bunch more polls even though
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it was the sainted "new york times" poll which we were talking about. >> woodruff: which i left out (laughter) >> judy, i dissent. i i think it may very well have start to run its course on this argument on healthcare. i mean, you can't say it's a total failure. we have millions signing up in the numbers they have. the reality of the preexisting conditions and kids staying under age 26 and no caps and families not going bankrupt because of illness, that's becoming a reality and the republicans have nothing. so, really, i think the argument, repair, fix, correct, rather than repeal, merely is starting to get some traction. i'm not saying it's a majority position but it's taken democrats out of a defensive crouch, i think in those states, and i would add -- i mean, mark pryor, his dad david was a successful governor, congressman, senator, he himself has run successfully in astate
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increasingly republican. mary anders' dad mayor of new orleans, brother's mayor now. won in tough times. there's a pretty good candidates and i agree with the overall climate is still favorable to the republicans in 2014, but i think the democrats have kind of gotten themselves off the campus. >> woodruff: one of the things you're hearing is the democrats are running very tough ads against the republican challengers and it's paying off, at least early in this cycle. >> i would pay particular attention to north carolina. if you want to know which way the senate goes, north carolina would be the win. >> following, notice the pattern created by harry reid in nevada where they advertised in the republican primary against the leading candidate hoping to draw the equivalent of christine o'donnell or todd akin in november.
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>> woodruff: well, nothing but good examples set here. mark shields, david brooks, thank you both. some four centuries after the death of william shakespeare, london's globe theatre is launching a plan to take the playwright's tale of a tormented prince around the world. jeff is back with more on that. >> "to be or not to be, that is the question...." >> brown: famous words, famous play, the most famous playwright in the english language. william shakespeare wrote "hamlet" in the ea17th century, shortly after his acting company, lord chamberlain's men, moved into the globe playhouse. in 1997, a reconstructed theatre opened on the thames river as shakespeare's globe. now, the ambitious plan is to take "hamlet" to every country on earth over the next two years, a project that began in
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london on wednesday, shakespeare's 450th birthday. i talked earlier today to the globe's artistic director, dominic dromgoole. thanks for joining us. in announcing this, you yourself said it was a "lunatic idea," so the first question, of course, why do it? >> why not? all of the best ideas are a little bit mad. two years ago, we did a very, very crazy idea, a festival where we invited 37 countries from all across the world to come and do the complete works of shakespeare all in their own languages, a six-week festival. that was crazy enough. but we wanted to cap that and go a little bit furthe and to celebrate shakespeare, celebrate the international reach of shakespeare, but also to cement other relationships that we formed when we did that festival and see if we could set a whole lot of new relationships as well. and then you come up with the idea that, you know, it's a bold
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idea, a stupid idea, a happy idea, and theystill have their own logic, those ideas. >> reporter: well, i think we're used to the idea of universal themes in shakespeare, but what specifically in "hamlet" do you think speaks to everyone? what do you want it to say all over the world? >> the thing about "hamlet" is it's always challenging. "hamlet" says the time is out of joint, a he's a man who's got a sensibility that doesn't fit in his own age. he's troubled by things in an age that doesn't particularly understand him and that makes sensitive where -- in england at the moment where a lot of people, the young, the old, feel a sense of dissatisfaction, a sense of discontent, they don't understand the world around them. this is true in america, i'm sure, and it's true in a lot of different places that are in a very different historical moment and a very different political situation. so "hamlet" is always challenging, always provoking,
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it's always troubling, but it can also inspire, can also console. so it's sort of gloriously variable pl that is many different situations and is beautiful and great story. >> brown: the themes may be universal but the language isn't, the setting of the play isn't, the politics of the different countries isn't. have you thought about how to overcome those challenges? >> yes, the challenges we faced when we did the festival a couple of years ago. we had hot issues to handle. we had a lot of objections to us bringing this to different countries. one group objected to us bringing israel, another group objected to us bringing palestine and we were determined we would have both of the countries within our festival. it's that spirit of inclusion rather than exclusion that we're following with this. we don't want to sort of start saying you qualify for
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shakespeare you qualify for "hamlet," you don't, because we don't feel we have the right to do that. i think every country in the world, every group of people in the world has an equal right to "hamlet" and i think "hamlet" can be an equal benefit for all of them. so there will be challenges but we like challenges. you can't be put off by those things. you've got to be inspired by those things. >> brown: it means going into different places, syria, central africa, many others. what about the physical challenge of performing this such situations? >> we're going to be very careful. we'reoing to be sensible. we're not doing it out of a spirit of recklessness, but i think that, you know, if we can get into everyplace, whether dealing with n.g.o.s, going to refugee camps, whatever it is, we want to get in every culture because we want to celebrate the ability of everybody to enjoy this fantastic and beautiful play. >> brown: i understand you're going to ukraine at a
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particularly important moment. tell us about that. >> yes, we're going to be in kiev in four or five weeks' time just the night before the election. we'll be playing in the theater and also try to do a short shea in maidan square where a protest is going on. that's when theater is most exciting and best when it can talk to people in a very current and live political moment. so it will be a real privilege. >> brown: so this is a two-year project. you've got the actors, the crew, the money to pull this off? >> we haven't reall real -- we'e already started. we've done two shows. we've done oe at the "globe" itself and we sail to holland, which is the first stop. we can always do it normally. there's a kick start campaign we're running and everyone wants to help along the way, but we're
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comfortable we'll be able to manage it. >> brown: dominic dromgoole, artistic director of the globe theatre in london. thanks so much and good luck. >> pleasure. thank you very much. >> woodruff: again, the major delopments of the day: pro-russian separatists in eastern ukraine detained a team of european military observers, as ukraine claimed russia is tryingstart world war iii. and bombs tore through a campaign rally in iraq, killing at least 31 people and wounding dozens more. on the newshour online rig now-- he's been called the "father of the novel," and on monday, nearly 400 years after his death, forensic anthropologists will use radar to hunt for the remains of spanish author miguel de cervantes. read about the mystery surrounding the "don quixote" writer's final resting place on the "rundown." all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org.
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and a reminder about some upcoming programs from our pbs colleagues. gwen ifill is preparing for "washington week," which airs later this evening. here's a preview: >> ifill: we have a full plate tonight with developments on the foreign policy front from asia to the middle east, while at home the supreme court and the justice department take matters into their own hands on affirmative action and drug sentencing. tonight washington week. judy. >> woodruff: and the news doesn't stop on fridays. tune in to the pbs newshour weekend with hari sreenivasan on saturday and sunday. and wll be back, right here, on monday. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a nice weekend. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from electronics systems to intelligence analysis and cyber-
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>> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to yo pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org 
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